Suspect testifies there was 'no purpose' for killing Connellsville woman

A kidnapping charge was added Thursday against two men accused of sexually assaulting and killing a woman whose body was found in the Youghiogheny River by a troop of Boy Scouts.

Paul Bannasch and Craig Rugg were sent back to the Fayette County Prison and ordered to stand trial after District Judge Ronald Haggerty listened to testimony at a preliminary hearing Thursday.

Witness Hilary Emerick, 22, identified the men and testified that she saw them with Margaret Kriek at Sidewinder's bar on June 21, and watched all three walk outside into the dark, shortly before Kriek was killed. She said she spoke with Bannasch.

"He asked me if I knew where she (Kriek) lived, and I said no, that I didn't know where she lived. I just know her from coming into the bar," Emerick said. "He said if I see him on any wanted posters or pictures or fliers or anything, that I didn't know him or I never saw him."

A recording of a statement that Rugg gave to police was also among the evidence presented at Thursday's hearing. Rugg said he initially punched Kriek because she wouldn't have sex with him.

"Her mouth had a little bit of blood over it from the smack and I believe right around her eye area where I had punched her was bleeding a little bit," Rugg said in the recording.

Rugg told police they continued the assault because they were scared, but he didn't offer a motive for killing her.

"We really had no purpose. We just got it out of frustration and everything. Us being scared, that's what it led to us doing," Rugg said.

He added the only reason he stopped kicking Kriek was because his leg started to hurt.

Rugg also told police he and Bannasch continued drinking after they dumped Kriek's body in the river. He said they also went to McDonald's on Route 119 for a late-night meal.

Neither Bannasch nor Rugg made any comment after the hearing. Rugg mouthed to his mother that he loved her, and wiped tears from his face as he sat in the back of a police unit.

"He's my son. It's just hard to believe. I would never expect it," said Rugg's mother, Jeanie Fuller.

Fuller knew of Kriek and her family because she had seen them in the Connellsville area for years prior to Kriek's death.

"She was a nice lady, very nice lady. She never deserved this. Shouldn't have happened," Fuller said.

When Action News Reporter Ashlie Hardway asked Fuller if she believed her son took part in Kriek's killing, Fuller said, "To be honest, no ma'am, I don't. But I wasn't there."

Kriek, 52, of Connellsville, was known as Peggy Sue, and was a mother of two and a grandmother of five. Her family said she was going to Sidewinder's bar on the night of June 21, but they never heard from her the next morning. (SLIDESHOW: Photos from the case)

Emerick and her mother, Jenny Emerick, led police to Bannasch and Rugg. Jenny and her husband own Sidewinder's, and Hillary was there as a patron the night Kriek, Bannasch and Rugg met. Hillary told police investigators that she saw the three talking outside and then watched them walk toward the Amtrak station along Water Street.

"I wish they were brave enough to stop it, to step in and do something," said Kriek's mother, Barbara Ritenour. "That's just what's wrong with this world; nobody wants to get involved with anybody or help anybody or anything like that."

Police said Kriek's body was spotted in the river in Dunbar Township near a sewage treatment plant shortly after 9:30 a.m. on June 22. Arrested the next day were Bannasch, 24, of Hopwood, and Rugg, 24, of Connellsville. Both are charged with homicide. Prosecutor Douglas Sepic said he recommends the death penalty, but will have to discuss it with district attorney Jack Heneks.

Ritenour said she has lived in the area for 40 years, but she had never seen Rugg or Bannasch. "This is just tearing my heart up so very badly. I've never faced anything worse than losing a child," she said. "Without my God, I'm not going to get through losing a child like this."

Police said Kriek was strangled, beaten and sexually assaulted. They added she was dead when her body was dumped in the river.

"We have to have a closed casket because she's beaten so badly, this little woman," said Ritenour. "She's 4-foot-9, weighs probably 110 pounds. Why do two men have to do something like this?"

Bannasch and Rugg patronized York's Bar in Connellsville shortly before stopping at Sidewinder's. A witness said the two men weren't acting suspiciously.

"They were like normal patrons; joking around with people, talking. They started to play a game of pool. Then, they got a phone call and left," said the witness, adding she was "shocked" to hear of their arrests.